Monday Papers: Porsche faces €1.8bn lawsuit in Frankfurt

Top stories

Financial Times: Seven hedge funds have filed a €1.8billion lawsuit against Porsche’s chairman and another board member, in the latest legal tussle related to the carmaker’s failed takeover bid for Volkswagen.

The Guardian: The Swiss drugs group Novartis intends to cut or transfer up to 4,000 jobs, according to an internal email.

Daily Mail: Computer giant Hewlett Packard is poised to cut hundreds more jobs in the UK, on top of the 1,000 it axed at the end of last year.

The Daily Telegraph: Companies and banks that fail to prevent financial crime by their staff could face vast fines and be blacklisted from European contracts under a change to the Bribery Act being considered by the Government.

Financial Times: The shortfall in BT Group’s pension scheme rose to £7.3 billion as of 31 December, confounding suggestions that rising Gilt yields would prove a boon to troubled companies trying to close their deficits.

Financial Times: Intesa Sanpaolo is working on plans to become the first Italian lender since the financial crisis to set up an internal “bad bank” by setting aside a chunk of its €55 billion of gross non-performing loans ahead of banking stress tests by the European regulator.

Financial Times: Ross McEwan, the new chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, is preparing a sweeping overhaul of his top management team as part of a broad restructuring aimed at strengthening the bank’s focus on retail and small business customers.

Financial Times: As the largest Chinese technology deal in the US, Lenovo’s $2.9 billion purchase of Motorola’s handset business last week will be closely scrutinised by a US government committee that reviews transactions for national security concerns.

Business and economics

Financial Times: Spain has no intention of interfering in Scotland’s push for independence and is willing to consider an eventual Scottish application to join the EU as a separate state, foreign minister José-Manuel García-Margallo said in remarks that will bolster the nationalist campaign.

Financial Times: Banks’ pay practices are set for further scrutiny after the head of the Treasury committee of MPs, Andrew Tyrie, urged the regulator to clamp down on the sales-based incentives that have been blamed for fuelling mis-selling scandals.

Financial Times: Citigroup, the third-biggest US bank by assets, is looking to raise the stakes in the battle of the bank apps by allowing customers to check their balances and recent transactions without logging into their accounts.

The Daily Telegraph: GlaxoSmithKline will soon announce plans to launch late stage clinical trials on ten new drugs over the next two years.

Daily Mail: Dick Olver, the former BAE chairman who tried to sell the British aerospace giant to the French, is being paid £215,000 for three months’ work – despite having officially left the firm.

The Daily Telegraph: Ryanair's chief executive, Michael O’Leary, has called time on his colourful “Pony and Trap show” publicity stunts as the low-cost airline prepares to report its first third quarter loss since 2010.

Financial Times: Société Générale is expanding its bond trading business in a move to get a stronger global foothold as most of its European banking rivals are cutting back.

Financial Times: Facebook’s strong earnings last week are piling the pressure on Twitter as it prepares to report its first quarterly results on Wednesday, after its shares have more than doubled since listing.

The Daily Telegraph: Online gambling group bwin.party is calling an extraordinary shareholder meeting to award top executive up to 550% of their annual salary as some existing bonus plans have become worthless.

Financial Times: London’s house prices are beginning to show signs of “bubble-like conditions”, according to a report by the EY Item Club.

The Guardian: The number of jobs created in the City of London in January increased to 3,350, the highest for more than 18 months, Astbury Marsden, a recruitment firm reports.

Financial Times: America’s top trade official has sought to reassure European and Asian negotiating partners that the White House can overcome rising dissent in Congress as it tries to keep momentum behind two of the world’s most ambitious regional trade agreements.

Financial Times: A delegation of more than 100 French companies is set to visit Tehran on Monday in the biggest demonstration of western business interest in Iran for more than a decade.

Financial Times: Governments and companies in emerging markets are facing steep increases in fuel costs, which threaten to widen trade deficits or curtail economic growth, as a result of recent currency turmoil.

Financial Times: Japan is on course to break a pledge to balance its budget by 2020, according to a new government forecast that sets up a battle between fiscal hawks at the ministry of finance and doves in the cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The Guardian: Germany has signalled it is preparing a third rescue package for Greece - provided the debt-stricken country implements "rigorous"austerity measures blamed for record levels of unemployment and a dramatic drop in GDP.

Financial Times: Tax breaks should be used to encourage more companies to use equity finance, helping them to invest and boost the economy, the UK’s largest employers’ group has said.

Financial Times: Daniel Birnbaum, the chief executive of SodaStream, the Israeli maker of home fizzy-drink dispensers, has hit back at critics of his company and of the Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson for her ties to the group.

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The Guardian: B&M, a discount retailer set up in Blackpool with just £750 in 1978, is preparing for a stock market flotation that could value it at £2 billion.

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